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RNC picks rainmakers to rein in rising debt

Reince Priebus fired members of a planning committee accused of lavish spending. |
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Priebus has made several early moves aimed at winning back the trust of the major donors who were estranged from the committee during the Steele years by demonstrating he is serious about reining in costs.

Priebus has fired members of a convention planning committee accused of lavish spending, and this week he fired another 35 RNC employees as part of a person-by-person, program-by-program internal review led by former adviser to President George W. Bush, Ed Gillespie, and former Republican Governors Association Executive Director Nick Ayers.

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Priebus also has agreed to a new degree of outside oversight. He will allow the financial transition team — and those assigned to permanently replace it — to conduct regular reviews of the committee’s books and hold its own meetings with internal bookkeepers. The transition team will be able to report its findings — good or bad — to major donors. The former RNC treasurer last year accused Steele of hiding debts and blocking access for the committee’s internal finance team.

Weiser said the committee also intends to ensure major donors that none of their checks will be used to pay off the debt accrued by Steele — a prospect that could prompt many to pocket their pens.

“That means we have to find other ways to retire the debt,” he said, noting that cutting costs and ramping up small-donor giving should allow the committee to begin paring down its deficit while also hoarding the big-donor cash for 2012.

Despite the difficulty of the task ahead, donors said they are confident the RNC can make a financial recovery in time for the 2012 presidential campaign, if only because its unique role in the political system makes it critical to do so.

The RNC is the only committee that can coordinate directly and share costs with the party’s presidential nominee, a relationship that was vital to McCain’s campaign in 2008. In that cycle, the RNC spent $19 million in coordinated expenses with the McCain campaign, $53 million on independent expenditures on its behalf and $30 million on hybrid ads that promoted the GOP ticket.

In addition, the RNC traditionally has overseen the party’s voter turnout operation, and the 2010 midterms only emphasized the importance of that role.

After Steele spread word that the committee didn’t have enough money to run a full-scale turnout campaign, the governors association and two independent groups, formed with the help of former Bush advisers Karl Rove and Gillespie, tried to fill the gap.

But many Republicans have concluded that patchwork solution was inadequate. According to Weiser, House Republicans are convinced they could have picked up 20 more seats if the party’s turnout program had been fully operational.

Republicans are also convinced turnout tipped the presidential race their way in 2000 and 2004, and they are loath to risk losing the White House and ousting Obama because of an underfunded ground game.

While reinvigorating their party’s national committee is clearly a top priority for major donors and fundraisers, according to interviews, they also are eager to get back into the political game in a big way now that Steele is gone.

Weiser noted that many of the attendees at Tuesday’s meeting flew in from around the country with just five days’ notice — or less. Other participants camped on conference call phone lines for three to four hours so they could engage in the effort.

The seven former party chairmen, who met with Priebus separately, also agreed to become part of the fundraising effort, which provides him with access to another set of powerful networks to tap.

“In the history of the party, I don’t remember an assemblage of such high-powered donors, and I’m even more amazed that we did it on such short notice,” said Hoffman.

Readers' Comments (13)

The Republican Party is about to self Destruct. Wait and See. All of the Sugar Daddies in the world won't save them if they don't change...soon. Running off M.Steele was a clue that the Old Country Club Republicans....were still in charge at the RNC.

These are the same people who are still telling us that Free Trade Deals help the USA Economy.

These are the same people who enjoy war as a spectator sport. They will tell you the Pentagon cannot be audited. I can tell you...they don't want to audit the Pentagon.

These are the same people who take millions from the Chamber of Commerce, who wink, wink at the enormous nation killing costs of illegal immigration, legal immigration through chain migration that the past Seven major amnesties have set off...79 Million new USA citizens in the last 25 years, almost all from third world nationa. They don't want to give you the cost of that human tidal wave. Big Business likes cheap labor and to heck with the USA. Currently the COC is fighting E-Verify in AZ before the Supreme Court and is fighting the new mandates for legal hires in Florida. Rubio won't join the Tea Party Caucus...see the connection..if any???

Paul Ryan, and his Wanna Bees are attacking Social Security 24/7. Last time I looked it was the throngs of old people who took on the Establishment in D.C. that gave the Republcians their ticket to the big dance in Corruption City. Looks like they got dumped.

Seniors don't have the money to be Sugar Daddies to the RNC...but they vote. Oh do they vote. If I could take back my vote..and everyone I know..Charlie Crist would be the new Senator from Florida. the Republicans fooled me once. They won't do it again.

Michael Steele was a scapegoat for the RINOS and the old gaurd. The party stopped being able to get the donations required because people were giving to candidates, not a party they could rely on. This problem has been festering since President Bush took office. Steele did a great job rallying all those diverse supporters behind republican candidates. The best rainmakers are the republican representatives, if they do the right thing. But it will still take a few cycles before the party is trusted again.

Before you start running around asking for money, at least from me, I like to see a few of the following in the Republication advertising. 1. Term limits 2. SINGLE ISSUE BILLS 3. Senators and Congressman have the same health care as everyone else 4. No retirement benefits for Senators and Congressman 5. No buildings, bridges, etc can be named after a living Senator or Congressman I would like to also see that no president can run around the country campaigning on the taxpayers dollar. Obama did this every day during the midterm elections. The excuse was he paid for a first class seat at commercial rates. If you want to calculate it this way make every one on the plane pay a first class ticket and a fee for the plane and crew.

Well.....this kind of proves that the Republicans didn't "outspend" Democrats to win the seats in 2010. They simply didn't have the money. They didn't raise enough to even cover their bills. Now they will have to raise money just to break even.

The Dems got the bulk of the donations in 2010 because they controlled the WH and most of Congress. This made them recipients of the lions share of coporate and special interest donations. Dems raked it in until just 90 days before the election when the whole world could see that the public was not going to reelect all those Dems. Only then did corporate money start to slow to a trickle for Dems. And it only grew to a trickle for Republicans. Mostly the last 90 day the special interests simply held back and waited to see the outcome. They didn't want to bet against the winner by supporting the opposition, and the eventual winner was hazy until a couple weeks before the election.

Up until two weeks before the election, Pelosi was still claiming that inside polling showed them retaining the House, and possibly widening the lead in the Senate. We now know that was a lie, and that she was merely trying to limit donors from defecting and supporting Republicans. And the strategy worked.

Reince starts in a much better position. While Republicans are still a minority in the Senate, they have the House. And the odds in the Senate (with 23 Dem caucus members up for reelection, and only 11 Republicans) is good for Republican gains. This encourages special interests to at least balance their political donations between the parties, which will be a big boost for Republicans since they got so little in the 2006-2010 period.

As cheney said, "reagan proved that deficits don't matter." With this as the GOP's economic mantra, it does not matter who they bring in. If they will not do something for Americans instead of businesses, they are finished.

More funding for the GOP will cement the control the donors have over what RNC will say and advocate, and ask all other GOP members to adhere to. The Corporate Financial campaign policies of 2012 comes out of the moth of the RNC. - Will we have Consumer protection vs. Corporate governance?

The plutocracy with tell the Washington oligarchy what to do and say - standard GOP "conservatism". No room for the moderates at all.